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Howie Good

Howie Good, a journalism professor at SUNY New Paltz, is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection Dark Specks in a Blue Sky from Another New Calligraphy. He is the recipient of the 2015 Press Americana Prize for Poetry for his collection Dangerous Acts Starring Unstable Elements.

It isn’t actually a wrecked stock car. I just call it
that, the top two floors occupied, and the lower
48 on fire. The mirror on the wall has mastered
the technique of waiting graciously for someone
to appear. Meanwhile, I listen to the insect-like
buzz of my own blood in embarrassed silence.
The only instruction is FOLLOW ALL
INSTRUCTIONS. There are naked women
everywhere. I don't think I'll be doing laundry.

Howie Good uses poetry to create a playful, yet sinister romp through our postmodern times. His is a world where God hides in the attic, neighbors step out dressed in their personal stories, and a hand washes ashore. These seemingly random associations take the familiar and render it strange as butterflies, children, angles, and rain fall like debris.

What happens when a story stops at one point, rather than concludes? If you close your eyes, can you calculate how far a scream will carry, given the given the currents of the wind? How do you survive a world where violence is culturally dictated entertainment? Mallarme, Rimbaud, Munch, Breton, Beckett, Burroughs, and Thoreau haunt the enigmatic manifesto of Echo’s Bones.